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Annabelle Gold-Caution of Fieldfisher analyses the impact of targeted social and technical influence on recent significant political events across the globe, comparing state responses to fake news, social media propaganda and cyber espionage.

How are digital companies affected by the "Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz" (Network Enforcement Act - NEA), a new law in Germany, which intends to tackle the highly controversial issue of hate speech and other illegal content on social media platforms.

The conventional wisdom said it couldn't happen - but it happened; we have a referendum vote for the UK to leave the EU. The current political fallout introduces uncertainty. The likely state of future law has come into focus. In the online and ecommerce space however, we perhaps have more answers than you first think. In the famous words of once United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, there are some known knowns; but also some known unknowns!

Lovers of fashion look forward to the September Issue and in the Valley we look forward to Mary Meeker's annual auspices or this year's Internet Trends Analysis, delivered in the 2016 Code Conference. What can be expected online in the year ahead?

Silicon Valley sits at the heart of many technology trends. The innovation funded here frequently permeates out to impact the entire globe. Since my initiation in November 2001 I've regularly tried to attend the Churchill Club's Annual Top Tech Trends event. In its 18th year it proved just as informative last night as leading Silicon Valley VCs try to predict where tech is going next. Witness the "Silicon Valley State of Mind" straight from the Churchill Club.

Another day, another (likely) win for internet intermediaries. In yet another show-down between rights-holders and internet intermediaries, the AG has issued an opinion confirming that a provider of free, public Wi-Fi is not liable for copyright infringements committed by users of that Wi-Fi. Furthermore, while a court may still order an injunction against such a provider to prevent further infringements, that injunction may not include an obligation to monitor the Wi-Fi or password-protect it. While this is a victory for free Wi-Fi lovers across Europe, it highlights the legal (and practical) difficulty of enforcing IP in a digital age.

Around 18 months ago I blogged about the European Commission's proposal for a directive on the protection of trade secrets, which aimed to reinforce the legal protection available to protect trade secrets from misappropriation and set a minimum level of protection across the continent. On 18th December 2015, a full revised text was agreed by the legislative bodies on terms that mean it is unlikely to change further before it passes into European law.